Welcome to the Gerstner Tool Chest Forum. We hope this forum will become a thriving gathering place to exchange information, tips & tricks, and ideas about Gerstner Tool Chests and Cases. We also have a section for discussion of other brands of vintage wooden tool chests from Union, Pilliod, Spico, Star and other companies.

We encourage your questions and comments as they will become a useful source of information to other visitors of the forum.

Thank you, Scott Campbell

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Kits made from high quality plywood

It comes in several different top veneers, it's stable, has minimal voids, won't delaminate, machines up nice and has an attractive edge. It can be stained, dyed or covered in vinyl depending on taste. You may even be able to get two colored laminates which would be really neat.

Being the curious type, I've read a number of articles about DIY CNC machines. I haven't built one but I suppose you could make one large enough to work a 4' X 4' or 4' X 8' sheet of plywood to cut out all the parts. If you do it right, you can use every bit of the plywood and have minimum waste. Any time you need a particular product, all you have to do is switch to that particular file and off it goes. Also, this setup could potentially save on labor cost. Of course, it would still need QC inspection and approval.

Also, if the whole kit is made from plywood, it should have minimal warp. You can make several runs and store them away until sold. Hopefully, you can worry less about replacing warped parts. This may need some field testing.

I think it would be fantastic to see Gerstner kits sold in brick and mortar stores or companies having them in stock to sell online. Maybe spin it off under a different name if need be.

Plywood wouldn't appeal to everyone but if used right, it has a very modern look. I think the possibilities of what you can do with it would be very interesting.

On a side note, Herman Miller started selling molded plywood chairs in the 1940s. If you can find an original, they go for a small fortune.